IN

A SERMON

PREACHED AT ST. MARY’S IN OXFORD,

BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY,

ON CHRISTMAS-DAY, 1665.

I CANNOT think it directly requisite to the prosecution of these words, (nor will the time allotted
for it permit,) to assert and vindicate the foregoing
verses from the perverse interpretations of that false
pretender to reason, and real subverter of all religion,
Socinus; who, in the exposition of this chapter, together with some part of the 8th, (both of them taken
from the posthumous papers of his uncle Lelius,)
laid the foundation of that great babel of blasphemies, with which he afterwards so amused and pestered the Christian world,
and under colour of reforming and refining, forsooth, the best of religions,
has employed the utmost of his skill and art to bring
men indeed to believe none. And therefore no
small cause of grief must it needs be to all pious
minds, that such horrid opinions should find so ready
a reception and so fatal a welcome in so many parts 438of the world as they have done; considering both
what they tend to, and whom they come from. For
they tend only to give us such a Christ and Saviour,
as neither the prophets nor evangelists know nor
speak any thing of. And as for their original, if
we would trace them up to that, through some of
the chief branches of their infamous pedigree, we
must carry them a little backward from hence; first
to the forementioned Faustus Socinus and his uncle
Lelius, and from them to Gentilis, and then to Servetus, and so through a long interval to Mahomet
and his sect, and from them to Photinus, and from
him to Arius, and from Arius to Paulus Samosatenus, and from him to Ebion and Cerinthus, and
from them to Simon Magus, and so in a direct line
to the Devil himself: under whose conduct in the
several ages of the church these wretches successively have been some of the most notorious opposers
of the divinity of our Saviour, and would undoubtedly have overthrown the belief of it in the world,
could they by all their arts of wresting, corrupting,
and false interpreting the holy text, have brought
the scriptures to speak for them; which they could
never yet do. And amongst all the scriptures, no
one has stood so directly and immovably in their
way as this first chapter of St. John’s Gospel, a chapter carrying in it so bright and full an assertion of
the eternal godhead of the Son, that a man must
put common sense and reason extremely upon the
rack, before he can give any tolerable exposition of
it to the contrary. So that an eminent Dutch critic) who could find in his heart, as much as in him
lay, to interpret away that noble and pregnant place
of scripture, John viii. 58. Before Abraham was, I 439am, from being any proof at all of Christ’s eternal
preexistence to his incarnation, and so to give up
one of the main forts of the Christian religion to the
Socinians) has yet been forced, by the overpowering
evidence of this chapter, (notwithstanding all his
shifts, too manifestly shewing what he would be at,)
to express himself upon this subject more agreeably
to the sense of the catholic church, than in many
other places he had done. And well indeed might
he, even for shame itself, do so much, when it is
certain that he might have done a great deal more.
For such a commanding majesty is there in every
period almost of this chapter, that it has forced even
heathens and atheists (persons who valued themselves not a little upon their philosophy) to submit
to the controlling truth of the propositions here delivered, and, instead of contradicting or disputing, to
fall down and worship. For the things here uttered were mysteries kept hid from ages, and such
as God had for four thousand years together, by all
the wise arts and methods of his providence, been
preparing the world for, before it could be fit or ripe
to receive them: and therefore a most worthy subject they must needs have been for this beloved apostle to impart to mankind,
who, having so long lain
in the bosom of truth itself, received all things from
that great original by more intimate and immediate
communications than any of the rest of the apostles
were honoured with. In a word, he was of the cabinet; and therefore no wonder if he spake oracles.

In the text we have these two parts.

First, Christ’s coming into the world, in those
words, he came to his own.

440

Secondly, Christ’s entertainment, being come, in
those other words, his own received him not.

In the former of which there being an account
given us of one of the greatest and most stupendous
actions that the world was ever yet witness of; there
cannot, I suppose, be a truer measure taken of the nature of it, than by a distinct consideration of the several circumstances
belonging to it, which are these.

First, The person who came.

Secondly, The condition from which he came.

Thirdly, The persons to whom he came. And,

Fourthly and lastly, The time of his coming.

Of all which in their order. And,

1. First for the person who came. It was the second Person in the glorious Trinity, the ever blessed
and eternal Son of God, concerning whom it is a miracle, and a kind of paradox to our reason, (considering the condition of
his person,) how he could be said
to come at all: for since all coming is motion or
progression from a place in which we were, to a
place in which we were not before; and since infinity implies an actual comprehension of, and a presence to, all places, it
is hard to conceive how he who
was God could be said to come any whither, whose
infinity had made all progression to, or acquisition
of a new place impossible. But Christ, who delighted to mingle every mercy with miracle and
wonder, took a finite nature into the society and
union of his person; whereupon what was impossible to a divine nature was rendered very possible
to a divine person; which could rightfully and properly entitle itself to all the respective actions and
properties of either nature comprehended within its 441personality: so that being made man, he could do
all things that man could do, except only sin. Every
thing that was purely human, and had nothing of
any sinful deficiency or turpitude cleaving to it, fell
within the verge and compass of his actions. But
now, was there ever any wonder comparable to this;
to behold divinity thus clothed in flesh! the Creator of all things humbled, not only to the company,
but also to the cognation of his creatures! It is as if
we should imagine the whole world not only represented upon, but also contained in one of our little
artificial globes; or the body of the sun enveloped in
a cloud as big as a man’s hand; all which would be
looked upon as astonishing impossibilities; and yet
as short of the other, as the greatest finite is of an
infinite, between which the disparity is immeasurable. For that God should thus in a manner trans
form himself, and subdue and master all his glories
to a possibility of human apprehension and converse,
the best reason would have thought it such a thing
as God could not do, had it not seen it actually done.
It is, as it were, to cancel the essential distances of
things, to remove the bounds of nature, to bring heaven and earth, and, what is more, both ends of the
contradiction together.

And thereupon some, who think it an imputation
upon their reason to believe any thing but what
they can demonstrate, (which is no thanks to them at
all,) have invented several strange hypotheses and
salvos to clear up these things to their apprehensions: as, that the divine nature was never person
ally united to the human, but only passed through it
in a kind of imaginary, phantastic way; that is, to
speak plainly, in some way or other, which neither 442scripture, sense, nor reason know any thing of. And
others have by one bold stroke cut off all such relation of it to the divine nature, and in much another
sense than that of the Psalmist, made Christ altogether such an one as themselves, that is, a mere
man; ψιλὸς ἄνθρωπος: for Socinus would needs be as
good a man as his Saviour.

But this opinion, whatsoever ground it may have
got in this latter age of the church, yet no sooner
was it vented and defended by Photinus, bishop of
Sirmium, but it was immediately crushed, and universally rejected by the church: so that although
several other heresies had their course, and were but
at length extinguished, and not without some difficulty, yet this, like an indigested meteor, appeared
and disappeared almost at the same time. However,
Socinus beginning where Photinus had long before
left off, licked up his deserted forlorn opinion, and
lighting upon worse times, has found much better
success.

But is it true that Christ came into the world?
Then sure I am apt to think that this is a solid inference, that he had an existence and a being before
he came hither; since every motion or passage from
one place or condition to another, supposes the thing
or person so moving to have actually existed under
both terms; to wit, as well under that from which,
as that to which he passes. But if Christ had nothing but an human nature, which never existed till
it was in the world, how could that possibly be said
to come into the world? The fruit that grows upon
a tree, and so had the first moment of its existence
there, cannot with any propriety or truth of speech
be said to have come to that tree, since that must 443suppose it to have been somewhere else before. I am
far from building so great and so concerning a truth
merely upon the stress of this way of expression;
yet till the reasoning grounded upon it be disproved,
I suppose it is not therefore to be despised, though
it may be seconded with much better.

But the men whom we contend with, seem hugely injurious to him, whom they call their Saviour,
while they even crucify him in his divinity, which
the Jews could never do; making his very kindness an argument against his prerogative. For
his condescending to be a man makes them infer
that he is no more; and faith must stop here, because sight can go no further. But if a prince shall
deign to be familiar, and to converse with those
upon whom he might trample, shall his condescension therefore unking him, and his familiarity rob
him of his royalty? The case is the same with
Christ. Men cannot persuade themselves that a
Deity and infinity should lie within so narrow a
compass as the contemptible dimensions of an human body: that omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence should be ever wrapt
in swaddling clothes,
and abased to the homely usages of a stable and a
manger: that the glorious artificer of the whole
universe, who spread out the heavens like a curtain,
and laid the foundations of the earth, could ever
turn carpenter, and exercise an inglorious trade in a
little cell. They cannot imagine, that He who commands the cattle upon a thousand hills, and takes
up the ocean in the hollow of his hand, could be
subject to the meannesses of hunger and thirst, and
be afflicted in all his appetites: that he who once
created, and at present governs, and shall hereafter 444judge the world, should be abused in all his concerns
and relations, be scourged, spit upon, mocked, and
at last crucified. All which are passages which lie
extremely cross to the notions and conceptions that
reason has framed to itself of that high and impassible
perfection that resides in the divine nature. For
it is natural to men to be very hardly brought to
judge things to be any more than what they appear; and it is also as natural to them to measure
all appearances by sense, or at the furthest by reason;
though neither of them is a competent judge of the
things which we are here discoursing of.

2. The second thing to be considered is the state
or condition from which Christ came; and that was
from the bosom of his Father, from the incomprehensible, surpassing glories of the godhead, from an
eternal enjoyment of an absolute, uninterrupted bliss
and pleasure, in the mutual, ineffable intercourses
between him and his Father. The heaven of heavens was his habitation, and legions of cherubims
and seraphims his humble and constant attendants.
Yet he was pleased to disrobe himself of all this
magnificence, to lay aside his sceptres and his glories, and, in a word, to empty himself as far as the
essential fulness of the Deity could be capable of
such a dispensation.

And now, if by the poor measures and proportions of a man we may take an estimate of this
great action, we shall quickly find how irksome it is
to flesh and blood to have been happy, to descend
some steps lower, to exchange the estate of a prince
for that of a peasant, and to view our happiness only
by the help of memory and long reflections. For
how hard a task must obedience needs be to a spirit 445accustomed to rule and to dominion! How uneasy
must the leather and the frieze sit upon the shoulder that used to shine with the purple and the
ermine! All change must be grievous to an estate of
absolute, entire, unmingled happiness; but then to
change to the lowest pitch, and that at first, with
out inuring the mind to the burden by gradual,
intermediate lessenings and declensions, this is the
sharpest and most afflicting calamity that human
nature can be capable of. And yet what is all this
to Christ’s humiliation? He who tumbles from a
tower, surely has a greater blow than he who slides
from a molehill. And we may as well compare the
falling of a crumb from the table to the falling of a
star from the firmament, as think the abasement of
an Alexander from his imperial throne, and from the
head of all the Persian and Macedonian greatness, to
the condition of the meanest scullion that followed
his camp, any ways comparable to the descension of
him who was the brightness of his Father’s glory,
and the express image of his person; to the condition of a man, much less of a servant and a crucified malefactor. For so was Christ treated: this
was the strange leap that he made from the greatest
height to the lowest bottom: concerning which it
might be well pronounced the greatest wonder in
the world, that he should be able so far to humble
himself, were it not yet a greater that he could be
willing. And thus much for the second circumstance.

3. The third is, the persons to whom he came,
expressed by that endearing term his own; and this
in a more peculiar, advanced sense of propriety.
For all the nations of the world were his own by 446creation, and, what is consequent to it, by the right
of possession and absolute dominion; but the Jews
were his own by a fraternal right of consanguinity.
He was pleased to derive his humanity from the
same stock, to give them the honour of being able
to call the God of heaven and the Saviour of the
world their brother.

They were his own also by the right of churchship, as selected and enclosed by God from amidst
all other nations, to be the seat of his worship, and
the great conservatory of all the sacred oracles and
means of salvation. The gentiles might be called
God’s own, as a man calls his hall or his parlour his
own, which yet others pass through and make use
of; but the Jews were so, as a man accounts his
closet or his cabinet his own; that is, by a peculiar,
uncommunicable destination of it to his own use.

Those who have that hardy curiosity, as to examine the reason of God’s actions, (which men of
reason should still suppose,) wonder that, since the design
of Christ’s coming was universal, and extending to
all mankind, he should address himself to so inconsiderable a spot of the world as that of Palestine, confining the scene
of all his life and actions to such
a small handful of men; whereas it would have
seemed much more suitable to the purposes of his
coming, to have made Rome, at that time the metropolis of the western world, and holding an intercourse with all nations,
the place of his nativity and
abode: as when a prince would promulge a law, because he cannot with any convenience do it in all
places, therefore he does it in the most eminent
and conspicuous. To which argument, frequently
urged by the enemies of Christianity, he who would 447seek for a satisfactory answer from any thing but
the absoluteness of God’s sovereignty, will find himself defeated in his attempt. It was the mere result
of the divine good pleasure, that the fountain of life
should derive a blessing to all nations, from so narrow and contemptible an head.

And here I cannot but think it observable, that
all the passages of the whole work of man’s redemption carry in them the marks, not only of mercy,
but of mercy acting by an unaccountable sovereignty: and that for this very reason, as may be
supposed, to convince the world that it was purely
mercy on God’s part, without any thing of merit on
man’s, that did all. For when God reveals a Saviour to some few, but denies him to more; sends
him to a people despised, but passes over nations
victorious, honourable, and renowned; he thereby
gives the world to know, that his own will is the
reason of his proceedings. For it is worth remarking, that there is nothing that befalls men equally
and alike, but they are prone to ascribe it either to
nature or merit. But where the plea of the receivers is equal, and yet the dispensation of the benefits
vastly unequal, there men are taught, that the thing
received is grace; and that they have no claim to it,
but the courtesy of the dispenser, and the largess of
heaven; which cannot be questioned, because it
waters my field, while it scorches and dries up my
neighbour’s. If the sun is pleased to shine upon a
turf, and to gild a dunghill, when perhaps he never
looks into the bedchamber of a prince, we cannot
yet accuse him for partiality: that short, but most
significant saying in the evangelist, May I not do 448what I will with my own?
Matt. xx. 15. being a
full and solid answer to all such objections.

4. The fourth and last circumstance of Christ’s coming related to the time of it: he came to the
Jews, when they were in their lowest and worst
condition, and that in a double respect, national and
ecclesiastical.

1. And first upon a civil or national account. It
was not then with them as in those triumphant
days of Solomon, when for plenty, riches, and grandeur, they had little cause either to make friends or
to fear enemies, but shone as the envy and terror of
all the surrounding neighbourhood. At the best
now they were but a remnant, and a piece of an
often scattered, conquered, and captivated nation:
but two tribes of twelve, and those under the Roman yoke, tributary and oppressed, and void of any
other privilege but only to obey, and to be fleeced
quietly by whosoever was appointed their governor.
This was their condition: and could there be any inducement, upon the common principles and methods
of kindness, to visit them in that estate? which
could be nothing else but only to share with them
in servitude, and to bear a part in their oppression.

The measure of men’s kindness and visits be
stowed upon one another, is usually the prosperity,
the greatness, and the interest of the persons whom
they visit; that is, because their favour is profitable,
and their ill-will formidable; in a word, men visit
others because they are kind to themselves. But
who ever saw coaches and liveries thronging at the
door of the orphan or the widow, (unless peradventure a rich one,) or before the house or prison of an 449afflicted, decayed friend? No, at such a time we account them not so much as our own; that unfriends
and unbrothers, and dissolves all relations, and it is
seldom the dialect of my good friend, any longer
than it is my great friend.

But it was another sort of love that warmed the
breast of our Saviour. He visits his kindred, nay, he
makes them so in the lowest ebb of all their outward
enjoyments, when to be a Jew was a name of disgrace, and to be circumcised a mark of infamy: so
that they might very well be a peculiar people, not
only because God separated them from all other nations, but because all other nations separated
themselves from them.

Secondly. Consider them upon an ecclesiastical
account, and so we shall find them as corrupted for a
church, as they were despised for a nation. Even in
the days of the prophet Isaiah, chap. i. 21, it was his
complaint, that the faithful city was become an harlot; that is, notable for two things, as harlots usually
are, paint and impurity. Which growing corruption, in all the intervening time, from thence to
the coming of Christ, received a proportionable improvement: so that their teachers, and most seraphic adored doctors of the
law, were still ranked
with hypocrites. For the text of Moses was used
only to authorize a false comment, and to warrant
the impiety of a perverse interpretation. Still for
all their villainies and hypocrisies they borrowed a
veil from Moses; and his name was quoted and pretended as a glorious expedient to countenance and
varnish over well contrived corruptions: nay, and
they proceeded so high, that those who vouched the
authority of Moses most, denied the being of immaterial 450substances, and the immortality of the soul, in
which is wrapt up the very spirit and vital breath of
all religions: and these men had formed themselves
into a standing and considerable sect called the Sadducees; so considerable, that one of them once stepped
into the high priesthood: so that whether you look
upon the Sadducees or the Pharisees, they had brought
the Jewish church to that pass, that they established
iniquity by a law, or which is worse, turned the law
itself into iniquity.

Now the state of things being thus amongst the
Jews at the time of Christ’s coming, it eminently
offers to us the consideration of these two things.

First, The invincible strength of Christ’s love,
that it should come leaping over such mountains of
opposition, that it should triumph over so much
Jewish baseness and villainy, and be gracious even in
spite of malice itself. It did not knock at, but even
break open their doors. Blessing and happiness was
in a manner thrust upon them. Heaven would have
took them by force, as they should have took heaven: so that they were fain to take pains to rid
themselves of their happiness, and it cost them labour and violence to become miserable.

Secondly, It declares to us the immovable veracity of God’s promise. For surely, if any thing
could reverse a promise, and untie the bands of a
decree, it would have been that uncontrolled impiety
which then reigned in the Jewish church, and that
to such a degree, that the temple itself was profaned
into a den of thieves, a rendezvous of hagglers and
drovers, and a place not for the sacrificing, but for
the selling of sheep and oxen. So that God might
well have forgot his promise to his people, when 451they had altered the very subject of the promise,
and as much as in them lay had ceased to be his
people.

We have here finished the first part of the text,
and took an account of Christ’s coming to his own,
and his coming through so many obstacles: may we
not therefore now expect to see him find a magnificent reception, and a welcome as extraordinary as
his kindness? For where should any one expect a
welcome, if not coming to his own? And coming
also not to charge, but to enrich them; not to share
what they had, but to recover what they had lost;
and, in a word, to change their temporals into eternals, and bring an overflowing performance and fruition to those who had
lived hitherto only upon promise and expectation; but it fell out much
otherwise, his own received him not.

Nor indeed if we look further into the world shall
we find this usage so very strange or wonderful. For
kindred is not friendship, but only an opportunity of
nearer converse, which is the true cause of, and natural inducement to it. It is not to have the same
blood in one’s veins, to have lain in the same womb,
or to bend the knee to the same father, but to have
the same inclinations, the same affections, and the
same soul, that makes the friend. Otherwise Jacob
may supplant Esau, and Esau hate and design the
death of Jacob. And we constantly see the grand
seignior’s coronation purple dipped in the blood of his
murdered brethren, sacrificed to reason of state, or
at least to his own unreasonable fears and suspicions:
but friends strive not who shall kill, but who shall
die first. If then the love of kindred is so small,
surely the love of countrymen and neighbours can 452promise but little more. A prophet may, without
the help of his prophetic spirit, foresee that he shall
have but little honour in his own country. Men
naturally malign the greatness or virtue of a fellow-citizen or a domestic; they think the nearness of it
upbraids and obscures them: it is a trouble to have
the sun still shining in their faces.

And therefore the Jews in this followed but the
common practice of men, whose emulation usually
preys upon the next superior in the same family,
company, or profession. The bitterest and the loud
est scolding is for the most part amongst those of
the same street. In short, there is a kind of ill disposition in most men, much resembling that of dogs;
they bark at what is high and remote from them,
and bite what is next.

Now, in this second part of the text, in which is
represented the entertainment which Christ found
in the world, expressed to us by those words, his
own received him not, we shall consider these three
things.

1. The grounds upon which the Jews rejected
Christ.

2. The unreasonableness of those grounds. And,

3. The great arguments that they had to the contrary.

As to the first of these. To reckon up all the
pretences that the Jews allege for their not acknowledging of Christ, would be as endless as the tales
and fooleries of their rabbles; a sort of men noted
for nothing more than two very ill qualities, to wit,
that they are still given to invent and write lies,
and those such unlikely and incredible lies, that none
can believe them but such as write them. But the 453exceptions which seem to carry most of reason and
argument with them, are these two.

First, That Christ came not as a temporal prince.

Secondly, That they looked upon him as an underminer and a destroyer of the law of Moses.

1. As for the first. It was a persuasion which
had sunk into their very veins and marrow; a persuasion which they built upon as the grand fundamental article of all their
creed, that their Messiah
should be a temporal prince, nor can any thing beat
their posterity out of it to this day. They fancied
nothing but triumphs and trophies, and all the nations of the earth licking the dust before them under
the victorious conduct of their Messiah: they expected such an one as should disenslave them from
the Roman yoke; make the senate stoop to their sanhedrim; and the capitol do homage to their temple.
Nay, and we find the disciples themselves leavened
with the same conceit: their minds still ran upon the
grandeurs of an earthly sovereignty, upon sitting at
Christ’s right and left hand in his kingdom, banqueting and making merry at his table, and who
should have the greatest office and place under him.
So carnal were the thoughts even of those who
owned Christ for the Messiah; but how much more
of the rest of the Jews, who contemned and hated
him to the same degree! So that while they were
feeding themselves with such fancies and expectations, how can we suppose that they would receive
a person bearing himself for the Messiah, and yet in
the poor habit and profession of a mean mechanic,
as also preaching to them nothing but humility,
self-denial, and a contempt of those glories and temporal felicities, the enjoyment of which they had 454made the very design of their religion? Surely the
frustration of their hopes, and the huge contrariety
of these things to their beloved preconceived notions,
could not but enrage them to the greatest disdain
and rejection of his person and doctrine imaginable.

And accordingly it did so: for they scorned, persecuted, and even spat upon him, long before his crucifixion; and no doubt,
between rage and derision,
a thousand flouts were thrown at him: as, What!
shall we receive a threadbare Messiah, a fellow fitter to wield a saw or an hatchet, than a sceptre?
For is not this the carpenter’s son? and have we
not seen him in his shop and his cottage amongst
his pitiful kindred? And can such an one be a fit
person to step into the throne of David, to redeem
Israel, and to cope with all the Roman power? No,
it is absurd, unreasonable, and impossible: and to
be in bondage to the Romans is nobler than to be
freed by the hand of such a deliverer.

2. Their other grand exception against him was,
that he set himself against the law of Moses, their
reverence to which was so sacred, that they judged
it the unchangeable rule of all human actions; and
that their Messiah at his coming was to impose the
observation of it upon all nations, and so to establish
it for ever: nay, and they had an equal reverence
for all the parts of it, as well the judicial and ceremonial as the moral; and (being naturally of a gross
and a thick conception of things) perhaps a much
greater. For still we shall find them more zealous
in tything mint, and rue, and cummin , and washing pots and platters, (where chiefly their mind
was,) than in the prime duties of mercy and justice.
And as for their beloved sabbath, they placed the 455celebration of it more in doing nothing, than in doing
good; and rather in sitting still, than in rescuing a
life, or saving a soul: so that when Christ came to
interpret and reduce the moral law to its inward
vigour and spirituality, they, whose soul was of so
gross a make that it was scarce a spirit, presently
defied him as a Samaritan and an impostor, and
would by no means hear of such strange impracticable notions. But when from refining and correcting their expositions and
sense of the moral law, he
proceeded also to foretell and declare the approaching destruction of their temple, and therewith a period to be put to all
their rites and ceremonies, they
grew impatient, and could hold no longer, but sought
to kill him, and thereby thought that they did God
good service, and Moses too. So wonderfully, it
seems, were these men concerned for God’s honour,
that they had no way to shew it, but by rejecting
his Son out of deference to his servant.

We have seen here the two great exceptions which
so blocked up the minds and hearts of the Jewish
nation against Jesus Christ their true Messiah, that
when he came to his own, his own rejected and threw
him off. I come now in the next place,

2. To shew the weakness and unreasonableness of
these exceptions. And,

First, For Christ’s being a temporal monarch, who
should subdue and bring all nations under the Jewish
sceptre. I answer, that it was so far from necessary,
that it was absolutely impossible, that the Messiah
should be such an one, and that upon the account of
a double supposition, neither of which, I conceive,
will be denied by the Jews themselves.

1. The first is the professed design of his coming,
456which was to be a blessing to all nations: for it is
over and over declared in scripture, that in the seed
of Abraham, that is, in the Messiah, all nations of
the earth should be blessed. But now if they mean
this of a temporal blessing, as I am sure they intend
no other, then I demand how this can agree with
his being such a prince, as, according to their description, must conquer all people, and enslave them
to the Jews, as hewers of wood and drawers of
water, as their vassals and tributaries, and, in a
word, liable upon all occasions to be insulted over
by the worst conditioned people in the world? A
worthy blessing indeed, and such an one as, I believe, few nations would desire to be beholden to the
seed of Abraham for. For there is no nation or
people that can need the coming of a Messiah to
bless them in this manner: since they may bless
themselves so whensoever they please; if they will
but send messengers to some of their neighbours,
wiser and powerfuller than themselves, and declare
their estates and country at their service, provided
they will but come and make them slaves with
out calling them so; by sending armies to take pos
session of their forts and garrisons, to seize their
lands, monies, and whatsoever else they have; and,
in a word, to oppress, beggar, and squeeze them as
dry as a pumice, and then trample upon them because they can get no more out of them: let any
people, I say, as they shall like this, apply to some
potent, overgrown prince, (whom the fools, his neighbours, shall have made so,) and I dare undertake,
that upon a word speaking, they shall find him ready
to be such a Messias to them at any time. And yet
this was all that the gentile world could gain by 457those magnificent promises of the Messiah, (as universal a blessing as the prophets had foretold he
should be,) if the Jews opinion concerning the nature of his kingdom over the rest of the world should
take place. But since they judge such a kind of
government so great a blessing to mankind, it is pity
but they should have a large and lasting enjoyment
of it themselves, and be made to feel what it is to be
peeled and polled, fleeced and flayed, taxed and trod
upon by the several governments they should happen to fall under; and so find the same usage from
other princes which they had so liberally designed
for them, under their supposed Messiah: as indeed
through the just judgment of God they have in a
great measure found ever since the crucifixion of
Christ.

Second. The other supposition upon which I disprove the Messiah’s being such a temporal prince, is
the unquestionable truth of all the prophecies recorded of him in scripture; many of which declare
only his sufferings, his humility, his low despised
estate; and so are utterly incompatible with such a
princely condition. Those two, the first, Psalm xxii.
the other in Isaiah liii. are sufficient proofs of this.
It is not to be denied, indeed, that several have at
tempted to make them have no respect at all to the
Messiah; but still the truth has been superior to all
such attempts. The Jewish rabbies for the most
part understand them of the whole body of the
people of Israel: and 1313 See more of this in the following discourse on Isaiah liii. 8.one we know amongst our
Christian interpreters, (though it will be hard to
christen his interpretation,) who will needs have this
whole fifty-third chapter of Isaiah to relate only to 458the prophet Jeremy, in the first and historical sense
of it: little certainly to the service of Christianity;
unless we can think the properest way for confirming our faith (especially against its mortal adversaries the Jews) be to
strip it of the chief supports
which the Old Testament affords it. But every little
fetch of wit and criticism must not think to bear
down the whole stream of Christian, catholic interpreters; and much less the apparent force and evidence of so clear a prophecy.

And therefore to return to the rabbies themselves,
the most learned of them, after all such fruitless at
tempts, understand those prophecies only of the Messiah: but then, being fond of his temporal reign and
greatness, some of them have invented the σοφὸν φάρμακον of two several Messiahs, Messiah Ben David,
and Messiah Ben Joseph: one whereof was to be
potent and victorious, the other low, afflicted, and
at length killed. A bold unheard of fiction, and
never known to the ancient Jewish church, till the
modern rabbies began to dote and blaspheme at all
adventures. But there is no shift so senseless and
groundless which an obstinate adherence to a desperate cause will not drive the defenders of it to. It
is clear, therefore, that all the pretences which the
Jews have for the temporal reign and greatness of
their Messiah, is sufficiently answered and cut off
by these two considerations: for to argue with them
further from the spirituality of the Messiah’s kingdom, as that the end of it was to abstract from all
carnal, earthly, sensual enjoyments, as the certain
hinderers of piety, and underminers of the spirit,
would be but a begging of the question, as to the
Jews, who would contend as positively that this was 459not to be the intent of it. And besides the truth is,
their principles and temper are so hugely estranged
from such considerations, that a man might as well
read a lecture of music or astronomy to an ox or an
ass, as go about to persuade them that their Messiah
was only to plant his kingdom in men’s hearts, and
by infusing into them the graces of humility, temperance, and heavenly-mindedness, to conquer their
corruptions, and reign over their carnal affections, which
they had a great deal rather should reign over them.
And thus much for answer to their first exception.

Secondly. I come now to shew the unreasonableness of the other, grounded upon a pretence, that
Christ was a supplanter of the authority of Moses,
and an enemy to the law. And here for answer to
this, I grant that Christ designed the abrogation of
their ceremonial law, and yet for all this I affirm
that Christ made good that word of his to the utmost, that he came not to destroy the law, but to
fulfil it. For we must know, that to destroy a constitution, and to abrogate, or merely to put an end
to it, are very different. To destroy a thing, is to
cause it to cease from that use to which it is designed, and to which it ought to serve: but so did
not Christ to the ceremonial law; the design of
which was to fore-signify and point at the Messiah
who was to come. So that the Messiah being come,
and having finished the work for which he came, the
use of it continued no longer; for being only to relate to a thing future, when that thing was past,
and so ceased to be future, the relation, surely,
grounded upon that futurity, must needs cease also.
In a word, if to fulfil a prophecy be to destroy it,
then Christ by abrogating the ceremonial law may be 460said also to have destroyed it. A prophecy fulfilled
is no longer a prophecy; the very subject-matter of
it being hereby took away; so a type is no longer a
type, when the thing typified comes to be actually
exhibited. But the Jews, who stripped all these
things from any relation to a spiritual design, thought
that their temple was to stand for ever; their circumcision and sabbaths to be perpetual, their newmoons never to change,
and the difference of meats
and of clean and unclean beasts to be unalterable.
For alas, poor ignorant wretches! all their religion
(as they had made it) was only to hate hogs, and to
butcher sheep and oxen. A religion which they
might very well have practised, had they sacrificed
to no other god but their belly. Having thus
shewn the unreasonableness of the Jews exceptions
against Christ, I come now to

The third and last thing, which is to shew, that
they had great reason for the contrary, high arguments to induce them to receive and embrace him
for their Messias. It is not the business of an hour,
nor of a day, to draw forth all those reasons which
make for this purpose, and to urge them according to
their full latitude and dignity: and therefore being
to speak to those, who need not be convinced of that
which they believe already, I shall mention but two,
and those very briefly.

1. The first shall be taken from this; that all the
signs and marks of the Messias did most eminently
appear in Christ: of all which signs I shall fix upon
one as the most notable, which is the time of his
coming. It was exactly when the sceptre, or government, was departed from Judah, according to
that prophecy of Jacob: and at the end of Daniel’s 461weeks; at which time he foretold that the Messiah
should come. Upon a consideration of which one
of their own rabbies, but fifty years before Christ,
said, that it was impossible for the coming of the
Messiah to be deferred beyond fifty years: a proportion of time vastly different from that of above six
teen hundred, and yet after this also they can hear
no news of such a Messiah as they expect. The
same Daniel also affirms, that after the coming and
cutting off of the Messiah, the city and the temple
should be destroyed: as clear therefore as it is, that
the city and temple are destroyed, so clear is it that
their Messiah came before that destruction. From
all which we may well insist upon that charge made
against them by our Saviour, Ye fools, ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the heavens, but
how is it that ye do not discern this time? A time
as evident as if it were pointed out by a sunbeam
upon a dial. And therefore the modern Jews being
pinched with the force of this argument, fly to their
old stale evasion, that the promise of the time of the
Messiah’s coming was not absolute but conditional;
which condition failing upon the great sins of the
Jews, the time of his coming has been accordingly
deferred. But this answer signifies nothing: for
the very design of the Messiah’s coming, was to take
away sins and be a propitiation for them, even according to their own rabbies words and confession:
and therefore it is ridiculous to make the Jews sins
the hinderances of his coming, when he made the
atonement of sins the chief reason why he should
come. In a word, if the Messiah was to come within such a certain period of time, (which time is long
since expired,) and while the city and temple were 462yet standing, which shortly after Christ’s coming
were demolished; then either that Jesus was the
Messiah, or let them shew some other about that
time, to whom that title might better belong.

2. A second reason shall be taken from the whole
course and tenor of Christ’s behaviour amongst the
Jews. Every miracle that he did was an act of
mercy and charity, and designed to cure as well as
to convince. He went about doing good; he conversed amongst them like a walking balsam, breathing health and recovery wheresoever he came. Shew
me so much as one miracle ever wrought by him to
make a man lame or blind, to incommode an enemy,
or to revenge himself; or shew me any one done by
him to serve an earthly interest. As for gain and
gold he renounced it. Poverty was his fee, and the
only recompence of all his cures: and had he not
been sold till he sold himself, the high priests might
have kept their thirty pieces of silver for a better
use. Nor was fame and honour the bait that al
lured him: for he despised a kingship, and regarded
not their hosannahs. He embraced a cross, and declined not the shame. And as for pleasure and softness of life, he was so far from the least approach to
it, that he had not where to lay his head, while the
foxes of the world had very warm places where to
lay theirs. He lived as well as wrought miracles.
Miracles of austerity, fasting, and praying, long
journeys, and coarse receptions; so that if we compare his doctrine with his example, his very precepts
were dispensations and indulgences, in comparison
of the rigours he imposed upon himself.

Let the Jews, therefore, who shall except against
Christ as an impostor, (as they all do,) declare what 463carnal or secular interest he drove at; and if not,
what there is in the nature of man, that can prompt
him to an endurance of all these hardships; to serve
no temporal end or advantage whatsoever. For did
ever any sober person toil and labour, and at length
expose himself to a cruel death, only to make men
believe that which he neither did nor could believe
himself? And so by dying in and for a lie, must
procure himself damnation in the next world, as well
as destruction in this? But if, for all this, they will
still make Christ a deceiver, they must introduce
upon mankind new principles of acting, cancel and
overturn the old acknowledged methods of nature;
and, in a word, either affirm that Christ was not a
man, or that he was influenced by ends and inclinations contrary to all the rest of mankind: one of
which must unavoidably follow; but neither of them
ought to be admitted, where sense or reason is so
much as pretended to.

And thus I have at length finished what I first
proposed to be discoursed of from these words, He
came to his own, and his own received him not. In
which, that men may not run themselves into a dangerous mistake, by thinking the Jews the only persons
concerned in these words, and consequently that the
guilt here charged upon them could affect none else;
we must know, that although upon the score of the
natural cognation between Christ and the Jews, the
text calls them by that appropriating character his
own, and accordingly speaks of his coming to them
as such; yet that all the nations of the world, who
have had the gospel preached unto them, are as really
his own, as any of the race of Abraham could be, (if
those may be called his own whom he had so dearly 464bought,) and consequently that we are as capable of
having Christ come to us, as the Jews themselves
were. And accordingly he actually has, and every
day does come to us; not in the same manner, indeed, but to the same purpose; not in the form of a
servant, but with the majesty of a Saviour; that is
to say, he comes to us in his word, in his sacraments,
and in all the benefits of his incarnation; and those
exhibited to us with as much reality and effect, as
if with our very eyes we beheld the person of our
benefactor. And then on the other hand, as we are
altogether as capable of his coming to us, as his
kindred and contemporaries the Jews themselves
were; so are we likewise as capable of not receiving him, as those wretches were or could be. And
therefore let no man flatter himself with reference
to Christ, as the Jews, in much the like case, did
with reference to the old prophets; boasting, forsooth, that had they lived in the days of their fathers, they would have had no hand in the Mood of
those holy messengers of God, Matt. xxiii. 30. Let
no vicious person, I say, though never so noted and
professed a Christian, conclude from hence, that had
he lived when and where our Saviour did, nothing
could have induced him to use him as those miscreants had done. For though I know that such
men (as bad as they are) do with great confidence
aver all this, and think themselves in very good
earnest while they do so; yet as, in general, he who
thinks he cannot deceive himself does not sufficiently know himself; so in this particular case, every
hypocrite or wicked liver professing Christianity,
while he thinks and speaks in this manner, is really
imposing upon himself by a false persuasion; and 465would (though he may not know so much) have borne
the very same malignity towards our Saviour, which
those Jews are recorded to have done; and under
the same circumstances would have infallibly treated
him with the same barbarity. For, why did the
Jews themselves use him so? Why? because the
doctrines he preached to them were directly contrary to their lusts and corrupt affections, and
defeated their expectations of a worldly Messias, who
should have answered their sensual desires with
the plenties and glories of such an earthly kingdom, as they had wholly set their gross hearts and
souls upon. Accordingly, let us now but shift the
scene, and suppose Christ in person preaching the
same doctrines amongst us, and withal as much
hated and run down for an impostor by the whole
national power, civil and ecclesiastical, as it then
fared with him amongst the Jews; and then no
doubt we should see all such vicious persons, finding
themselves pricked and galled with his severe precepts, quickly fall in with the stream of public vogue
and authority, and as eagerly set for the taking away
his life, as against reforming their own. To which
we may further add this, that our Saviour himself
passes the very same estimate upon every such
wicked professor of his gospel, which he then did
upon the Jews themselves, in that his irrefragable
expostulation with them, Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things
that I command you?Luke vi. 46. implying thereby, that this was the
greatest hostility and affront that men could possibly pass upon him. And no doubt but the Jews
themselves, who avowedly rejected Christ, and his
doctrine, out of an almost invincible prejudice infused
466into them by their teachers and rulers, concerning the utter inconsistency of both with the Mosaic constitution, were much
more excusable before
God, than any Christians can be, who, acknowledging the divine authority both of his person and his
gospel, do yet reverse and contradict that in their
lives and actions, which they avow in their creeds
and solemn declarations. For he who prefers a base
pleasure or profit before Christ, spits in his face, as
much as the Jews did: and he who debauches his
immortal soul, and prostitutes it to the vile and low
services of lust and sensuality, crucifies his Saviour
afresh, and puts him to as open a shame as ever
Pontius Pilate, the high priest, or those mercenary
tools, the very soldiers themselves, did. They do
not indeed pierce his side, but (what is worse) they
strike a dagger into his heart.

And now, if the passing of all these indignities
upon one who came into the world only to save it,
(and to redeem those very persons who used him
so,) is riot able to work upon our ingenuity, should
not the consequences of it at least work upon our
fears, and make us consider, whether, as we affect to sin like the Jews, it may not be our doom
to suffer like the Jews too? To which purpose, let
us but represent to ourselves the woful estate of
Jerusalem, bleeding under the rage and rapine of the
Roman armies; together with that face of horror
and confusion which then sat upon that wretched
people, when the casting off their Messias had turned
their advocate into their judge, their saviour into
their enemy; and, by a long refusal of his mercy,
made them ripe for the utmost executions of his justice. After which proceeding of the divine vengeance 467against such sinners, should it not (one would
think) be both the interest and wisdom of the stoutest and most daring sinners in the world, forthwith
to make peace with their Redeemer upon his own
terms? and (as hard a lesson as it seems) to take
his yoke upon their necks, rather than with the Jews
to draw his blood upon their heads; especially since
one of the two must and will assuredly be their case?
for the methods of grace are fixed, and the measures
stated: and as little allowance of mercy will be
made to such Christians as reject Christ in his laws,
as to those very Jews who nailed him to the cross.

In fine, Christ comes to us in his ordinances, with
life in one hand, and death in the other. To such
as receive him not, he brings the abiding wrath of
God, a present curse, and a future damnation: but
to as many as shall receive him, (according to the
expression immediately after the text,) he gives
power to become the sons of God. That is, in other
words, to be as happy, both in this world and the
next, as infinite goodness acting by infinite wisdom
can make them.

To him therefore, who alone can do such great
things for those who serve him, be rendered
and ascribed, as is most due, all praise, might,
majesty, and dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen.